Licensing of marijuana-grow facilities continues to vex Denver’s City Council as the board remains divided over whether to allow existing facilities to operate in areas where the zoning has changed.

“This is going to continue to be the center of the debate,” said Assistant City Attorney David Broadwell.

The city is wrestling with licensing requirements that must be in place by July 1, according to a state law passed last year that requires local governments to license dispensaries, grow facilities and manufacturing.

The new state law requires that dispensaries grow 70 percent of the product they sell, which last year spurred a rush to set up grow facilities.

In Denver, most began operating in warehouses in north Denver and along the South Platte River and Interstate 25 and Interstate 70.

About the same time, the city’s zoning code changed, leaving many grow facilities that had obtained plant husbandry permits suddenly nonconforming.

A total of 51 of the 179 plant husbandry permits issued between Jan. 1, 2009, and July 1, 2010, are nonconforming, according to city records.

In the Five Points neighborhood — where at least one developer has been in vocal opposition to the facilities — 17 of the 21 facilities are nonconforming.

On Tuesday, a council committee will meet to discuss a draft bill that has divided the council between those who think grow facilities impede development and those who say the facilities ought to be governed like any other business.

Does the city grandfather in those facilities under the old zoning code or not?

“This is going to be a battle,” said Councilman Charlie Brown. “The government has already given them a permit. I don’t believe in zoning people out of business. This is one of our fastest growing businesses in Denver, whether you like it or not.”

But Councilwoman Judy Montero doesn’t think the facilities should be allowed to remain in the River North area, northeast of Coors Field, where developers hope to transform a blighted warehouse district into a walkable, trendy neighborhood.

“Now that the new zoning code has passed, many of the people don’t want to continue as heavy industrial,” she said. “What I am trying to do there is figure out how we can create a balance in all of that.”

Jeremy P. Meyer was a reporter and editorial writer with The Denver Post until 2016. He worked at a variety of weeklies in Washington state before going to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as sports writer and then copy editor. He moved to the Yakima Herald-Republic as a feature writer, then to The Gazette in Colorado Springs as news reporter before landing at The Post. He covered Aurora, the environment, K-12 education, Denver city hall and eventually moved to the editorial page as a writer and columnist.

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